Any stock market traders here?

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I have good buy and hold strategies, I just wanted to day trade to make money faster. I was a day trader 20 years ago and did very well but then had some personal stuff and lost everything.
Trading was crazy easy back then because it was the first time in history that people could trade online.
 
The good news is that opportunities (although some are HIGHLY speculative) occur almost literally every day in the market.

Don’t drive forward with your eyes on the rear-view mirror. There’s always plenty of good stuff to see ahead.
 
I was just checking out ETF’s like you and tafan2 were suggesting and some of them performed pretty good last year while returning 40-50% each.
I am not sure what an ETF is , but I guess it doesnt matter as long as it makes money.
It seems like an ETF could be “ran” or created by a single person rather than a quantity of employees/researchers.
Reminds me of when i was trading 20 years ago and the market was trying to create new trends as old ones were fading out. They began hyping and rotating sectors to keep money coming in. They would say to buy “dot coms” , then the next thing was “IPO’s” , then biotechs, fiebr optics, etc etc. I cashed out at that point.
 
An ETF is similar to a mutual fund, but is traded like a stock on an exchange. You can buy/sell anytime the market is open. Capital gains are taxed when you sell and not handed out at the end of the year like many mutual funds.
 
The tax law is not fair. The laws changed a few times after day trading was possible and my accountant said that I have to declare gains immediately after day trades but the losses at the end of the year.

What ??? Why is a positive day trade an annual gain before the year is up , but a negative or losing day trade is not a loss ? LOL
 
You have to pay taxes as you earn your money, whether it is a paycheck, quarterly tax payments like I do, or withdrawal from a 401k or traditional IRA. It’s no different.
 
It’s not impossible, but it is very, very difficult to make it as a day trader. I’ve dabbled a little and I know a few guys who have made it. And many more who couldn’t hack it and had to go back to their day jobs. It is both a discipline and a psychological mindset that one has to cultivate in addition to finding edges that work according to one’s trading style.

I’ll be very blunt here: this isn’t a matter of showing up and throwing $1000 or $100,000 into a trading account, then voila you print money. This is real work and many who start doing it do not have what it takes to succeed. Some of these will never have what it takes; some because they won’t put in the work, others because they can’t develop the emotional mindset required. Some of your trades will fail. Even the best traders have failing trades, nobody gets 100% winners. Some trades may even fail badly. How one handles that and whether one can sleep at night plays a big part.

So if you insist on trying day trading, there are a lot of free resources on the net for learning the basics. Along the way, you will find a LOT of hucksters and scammers flogging their systems for getting rich quick. If it sounds too good, it likely is too good. IMO, the single most important thing to learn is risk management. This includes but is not limited to appropriately sizing your trade positions and always having an exit plan for every trade. Once you understand risk management, the next thing is to find your trading style and your edges, and get your mindset right. This part often takes time. Sometimes years. But you don’t need expensive courses, seminars or trading systems to get there.

I have a stable long term portfolio and that is about the extent of my trading as I look to contract work to pay the bills and hopefully add something to my retirement stash.
 
Whoa, wait…

You want to day trade and you don’t know what an ETF is?

No disrespect intended but you’ve got a TREMENDOUS amount of study ahead of you before you should even THINK about day trading.
 
tafan2 said:
Let me explain it a different way. There us a fundamental difference between trading and investing. You make money by investing because you are predicting the underlying value of something will increase over time. Traders try to make money because they believe the market is wrong at a given point in time in determining the underlying value (or r perhaps will be wrong in the future).
In other words, traders try to take advantage of market inefficiencies. Now inefficiencies can occur over various time frames. Apple may report a bad quarter, and it’s stock may fall, but you believe the drop is an over reaction, do you buy. Then you sell when you think the market has corrected itself.
Do inefficiencies come and go within a given day? Or at least correct themselves partially in a given day? Yes. Is it very hard to figure this out on such short time frames? Yes, very much so.
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I think that the line between the two is a bit more blurred. For instance, one can be making a longer term “investment” but by taking advantage of a “trader’s” observation, such as by using a sudden drop as an entry point without the intent of taking profit on rebound… or selling some shares and holding the rest. Ultimately it’s all investing. Before one invests in a company, one invests in oneself and ones ability to read the market, short or long term… especially with regard to short term.
 
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No doubt there are overlaps (and should be) in techniques. As a long term investor I still want good entry points. But I still say, short term trading is not investing. This is not to say that it is good or bad. It’s not for most if us simply because it is hard.
 
Hard indeed… cost me a pretty penny figuring that one out for myself😁
 
Well, it is easy to control losses now because of stop limit orders. 20 years ago , i was hoping that my trade would even execute in time, plus the commission was about $ 25 depending on which broker i used. Now trades are commission free.

You’re right about it being difficult. I have been researching for two days now, and found that some data is not consistent. For example, I have found gaps and other important data to be different from website to website. If people only use one source, they would never know the difference. I still dont know which sources are most accurate ad of yet, but i will figure it out.
 
I have experience day trading. I have no experience with anything else.

ETF’s have a much lower return( 40 - 50%) than successful day trading.
 
Pretty much what I do with my clients: Use fundamental analysis to decide WHAT to buy and technical analysis to decide WHEN to buy.
 
Spread over time? Instead of predated entries, entries based on technical movements? I tried that, with entrees separated by minimal periods of time.
 
littlebird said:
Now trades are commission free.
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But there is a spread between the buy and sell price where the specialist makes much of his money.

The one thing that is good is that trades are made in decimal points and not fractions any more. 🙂
 
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My impression is that they are good for starting out. Reliable volume, reliable liquidity, and swings that are a bit more manageable… depending on the ETF, of course.
 
Agreed. Very difficult to read the market. Seems 99% hype. The market is also extremely institutionally owned now. Many of the top companies are over 90% owned by institutions.

Maybe this is why the market has not crashed yet.

There are tons of companies that are crazy overvalued. I think microsoft is valued around $ 1.5 trillion or so yet there revs are only around $ 130 billion ? I am not even sure if it is legally possible for them to make $ 1.5 trillion unless they change their business model.
 
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